Aspect Software, a leading provider of next generation customer contact and enterprise workforce optimization, today announced an equity partnership with back office optimization software and services expert eg solutions, plc. The agreement provides Aspect exclusive distribution rights to eg's products and services in the Americas and the Asia Pacific region and formalizes the partnership model for both companies to address customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

"As the number of back-office workers continues to grow in organizations, managers are being asked to improve productivity, cut costs, optimize employee utilization and reduce risk, while at the same time improve the customer experience. Back office workforce optimization (WFO) suites have emerged in the last two years to assist enterprises with this challenge," says Donna Fluss, DMG Consulting president and contact center/back office industry analyst. "These suites are based on contact center staff optimization concepts and techniques that have been enhanced to address the dynamics of the back office."* Fluss cautions that WFO solutions "can be highly effective as long as they are custom built to take into account the unique characteristics and needs of the back office." It is the recognition of that market need that brought Aspect and eg together.

Aspect is the leader in workforce management, offering capabilities to align people's time and skills for best-in-class customer interactions with the contact center. The eg partnership creates the ability for Aspect to ensure that the people, processes and tasks that support these interactions across both the front and back office can optimize the total customer experience.

"The market is looking for a single solution to optimize the many different resources and tasks that affect customers directly or indirectly. Aspect will now be able to seamlessly orchestrate the people and processes that flow within and between the back office and front office to optimize how service is delivered," says Spence Mallder, senior vice president, general manager of the Workforce Optimization division and chief technology officer at Aspect. "eg's domain expertise in the back office along with the most open and flexible work distribution solution on the market made them a natural strategic partner for Aspect. The complementary software and expertise of eg and Aspect create a very powerful process optimization solution that efficiently delivers a cohesive, customer-delighting service experience."

When organizations optimize back office processes and employee performance in such areas as IT, HR and accounting, the benefits carry over to customer interactions. eg products and services are used to monitor work from any source, can integrate with multiple CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and BPM (Business Process Management) environments, and provide a view into how work is being executed -- all measured against operational goals and objectives that align to customer expectations.

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"The partnership with Aspect creates true end-to-end insight into, and control over, the full customer service process which will deliver measurable value around tasks and resources, regardless of who is serving the customer -- front office, back office, or both," says Elizabeth Gooch, eg CEO. "This global partnership creates new sales opportunities and opens up new markets for eg while providing investment capital for future development efforts. We're very enthusiastic about the joint solution this partnership will bring to the market."

"Early adopters of back office WFO solutions are realizing very significant savings, ranging from 20% to 40%," says Fluss.

The combined solution of Aspect and eg can help customers realize these savings by:

Minimizing repeat calls for the contact center that arise from back office inefficiencies

About eg
eg solutions, plc is a global back office optimisation software company. eg's software provides historic, real-time and predictive Operational MI. When implemented with their training programme for managers and team leaders to use this intelligence, eg guarantee improvements in operational results in short timescales.

The Company is listed on the Alternative Investment Market ('AIM') of the London Stock Exchange (EGS). For more information visit www.eguk.co.uk or email ask@eguk.co.uk.

About AspectAspect builds customer-company relationships through a combination of customer contact software and workforce optimization for the enterprise. For more information, visit www.aspect.com.
Follow Aspect on Twitter at @AspectUC. Read our blogs at http://blogs.aspect.com.

Aspect and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

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